The Betrayal Chapter 28 snippet

Her interrogator bent down by her face, he lips inches from her ear. Looking over the blood running from the corner of her mouth, he smiled at his handiwork. He had always been good at hurting people, he reminded himself, and Johansson had given him the opportunity to do so with governmental impunity!

“Now, Jennifer,” he said, using her name, his voice soft almost like a whisper. “Why don’t you tell me whom received the plans?”

“I have a better idea,” Jennifer sputtered as her lips started to swell. “Why don’t you jump into a thruster pack?”

Reaching out to grab the collar of her coat and blouse, he pulled her close to his face. She crinkled her nose, as she could smell the sour, garlic smell of his breath. Didn’t these guys ever think of brushing their teeth, she wondered, as she didn’t try to fight him. There was no way to escape, so why bother wasting her energy on something that was bound to fail?

“You will tell me where those plans are!”

“I told you,” she said, standing her ground, knowing what was coming. “I sent them to Kate only!”

“I’m really getting tired of your lies,” he said as she felt herself dropped back into the chair.

Taking a quick breath, she watched him turn from her for a second. The man’s speed was phenomenal, she thought as he swung around with his fist leading. Hearing a crack in her ears, she felt his fist make contact with her nose. As he followed through with his blow, his fist caught the underside of her eye a glancing blow.

The momentum of the blow sent her flailing backwards, all sensation on her face gone. Jennifer felt the chair hair the deck, the back of her head striking the metal flooring. However, the front of her face had gone numb from the blow, the flow of blood she knew was occurring not felt. Groaning she reached for her face and both hands came back red with her blood.

The bastard broke my nose, she thought in
stunned surprise.

Coming around the chair, the man bent down to pick her up in one hand. This was going to be one long day, she told herself as he reached back to strike her again. Closing her eyes to the room around her, she steeled herself for the next strike.

###

Jennifer cried out softly in pain as the guards drug her through the corridors. Her energy gone, her will nearly broken, she wasn’t able to walk, so they drug her limply through the corridors. Behind her, a trail a blood dropped onto the flooring from the open wounds on her face, leaving a follower the ability to know where they were taking her.

Oh God…she thought too weak to be able to moan.

Her entire face burned with a level of pain she had never felt before in her life. Even with all the battles on Necko, all the injuries she had suffered, nothing had hurt as bad this beating had! Trying to open her eyes, she found they were so swollen all she could see through were slits that barely let anything in for her to see.

The guards stopped before a cell, the sudden jarring stop making her cry out in pain. With a quick motion, they threw her into the cell, to land in a heap on the floor. Screaming in pain as her battered body hit the decking, she slowly, oh God so slowly, worked her way back onto her back. There, she lay, panting as she felt the blood running down her cheeks and through her hair to the floor.

I hope you’re surviving whatever they throw your way, Kate! She found herself thinking as she turned her head to spit some blood out of her mouth.

Taking a deep breath, Jennifer cried out as she rolled over to get on her hands and knees. With every move being a burst of agony, she started to drag herself toward the bunk at the far end of the room. She and her desire to try to help Kate out, she chided herself, look where it had gotten herself now!

“Oh…shut…up!” she gasped to herself as she fought her way across the room.

When the pain became too much to bear, she stopped for a few minutes, placing her head on the cool flooring. The metallic taste of her own blood started to fill her mouth, so she spit it out on the deck, oblivious to the fact that her bangs dipped into it. If she could only make the bunk, she told herself, and then everything would be okay for a bit!

Forcing her body to move, she made it to the bunk after several, long agonizing minutes. Once she arrived, she took a deep breath and forced herself to climb onto the mattress. A cry of pain escaped her lips as she collapsed onto the bed. Pulling herself into a fetal position, she closed her eyes to the rest of the world.

I’ll hold out for you, Kate, she thought. You just better survive to rescue me!

###

“She’s a tough woman, sir,” the interrogator said. “But I think I can break her.”

“She’s from Necko, Colonel,” Johansson said as they watched Loving pass out. “It might not be as easy as you think.”